Circus Census

So how many circuses do we have in the United States?—and now I mean the authentic kind, not what goes on on Wall Street and in Washington, DC. Are you guessing two: Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Brothers? Think again. Wikipedia has a kind of census of circuses (link), where you can get an actual count with some effort. Here is a list of circus counts across the world:

United States	57	Argentina	1
United Kingdom	20	Cuba	1
Australia	14	Finland	1
India	5	Malaysia	1
France	4	Mexico	1
Germany	4	New Zealand	1
Canada	3	Norway	1
Ireland	3	Poland	1
Italy	2	Russia	1
Netherlands	2	Spain	1
Pakistan	2	Sweden	1
Albania	1	Switzerland	1

Interesting, isn’t it. Surely the United States is the successor of Rome when it comes to the defining characteristic of that old center of power. And as the statistics show, the English-speaking world is overwhelmingly dominant. To save you the effort of counting, the list shows 129 circuses the world over. Amusingly, the place where they first arose, in Italy, has not been able to keep up with the competition. I thought I might show this seeing that my blog’s motto, above, promises information on “bread and circuses” along with other news. Bread will get its moment on LaMarotte some other time in the future.